Issues in your work life

For many of us our work is a big part of our day to day life.  But work is more than just what we do to earn money.  Work is often a big factor in how we think about ourselves, how we define who we are, it can be a source of achievement, pride and purpose.  And it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out, or right there in the middle of it all, or edging towards finishing it, there are times when our work is trouble, we might be experiencing anxiety, or having feelings of failure or overwhelm, of frustration and anger, or be under stress and pressure that feels impossible.  It can be difficult to keep these feelings and experiences just at work and often it spreads into other areas of our lives.

But let’s be real here, you are unlikely to single handedly change your work environment or culture, so if you want to continue working where you are, you need to focus on what you can do.  I believe it can help to focus on you, your skills and and your work relationships. Working on your tolerance for some of the frustrating stuff will also help.

The most important lesson I have learnt working in the corporate sector was that regardless of how much the company said they cared about me, they cared about business outcomes more.  We are all replaceable, and we should not forget it.  If you have ever worked through the loss of a key person, you soon realise you still need to get on with it, other people, maybe you, will step up and fill the gaps.  The business outcomes don’t change because employees leave.

If you listen to speeches from your colleagues when they are leaving, a common theme is that they turn up for the people they work with.   For many it is their work relationships that keep them there, not the business bottom dollar.  The danger is that we put up with a LOT to stay in those work relationships. For some of us it is because we don’t want to let people down or leave them in the lurch, for some of us it takes so much courage to speak up or to leave and step into the uncertainty of a new job.  Loyalty and commitment are important traits, but they can also keep us in situations that maybe aren’t the best for us.

My learning from this is that we can end up preferencing the needs of others, including the needs of our employer, over our own needs.

Working with me we would focus on how you can start to preference your own needs while still meeting your obligations as an employee, and your obligations to your colleagues.

We can work on specific work issues, or if you want to tackle your work life more broadly, I have put together a short program, touching on a range of topics relevant to who you are as a worker, and how to navigate various work issues and relationships.